The sight of people carrying tasselled prayer ropes may be common in Eastern monasteries, but it is decidedly less so in the southern Appalachian mountains. So when my pastor and I were comparing our chotkis after Mass one recent Sunday, it's no surprise that we garnered a lot of questions from curious parishioners.
A chotki (also sometimes called a komboskini) is a traditional Eastern Christian prayer rope, generally made from wool and tied with a special knot. Unlike the rosary, with its set structure of five decades, chotkis can be found in various shapes and sizes. Common lengths are 33 knots (one for every year of Jesus' life), 50 knots, 100, 150, or even 300 knots. On each knot is said the Jesus Prayer. Various forms of this prayer exist, but the most common is, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This prayer is taken from the publican's prayer in Luke 18:13, though its devotional use is attributed to St. Simeon the New Theologian.
I first learned of this devotion from a professor at the university where I serve as campus minister. He is a Catholic of the Ruthenian rite and can often be seen walking around campus with his prayer rope in hand. In giving a talk to our campus ministry group one evening, he explained that the chotki is an aid in following St. Paul's command to pray without ceasing (1 Thes 5:17). As he went about his day, he would continuously pray the Jesus prayer, pausing at each spacer bead placed every 25 knots to pray the Trisagion or "Thrice Holy" prayer: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us."
Although chotkis can be made in different colors and materials, the most common are of black wool. Black is the color of mourning and reminds us of our mortality. Wool reminds us that we are the rational sheep of Jesus' flock, and also that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Each knot is composed of seven crosses, to remind us of our Lord's sacrifice on Calvary.
There is an interesting legend about this knot. A monk (sometimes said to be St. Anthony) is tying knots in his prayer rope. As he ties each knot, the devil comes behind him and unties it, despising the prayerful purpose the knot would have. An angel (sometimes Our Lady) appears to the monk and shows him how to make a knot from seven crosses, which the devil cannot not untie. For this reason, the knot is called the "Angelic knot."
Most prayer ropes are made by nuns in Orthodox or Eastern Catholic monasteries, although you can find Youtube videos showing how to tie the Angelic knot yourself. My wife and I keep a small flock of sheep and she spins beautiful yarn from their fleece. I thought I'd learn to make my own chotki using our homespun wool, but after a few weeks of getting my fingers tied and tangled, I decided that it would be unjust to deprive a good sister of her livelihood. I sent the yarn instead to Mother Anna of the Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery in New York for her skilled hands to accomplish what mine could not.
The chotki is sometimes erroneously called the "eastern rosary," and I have even heard it suggested that western Christians should leave it alone and foster devotion to the rosary instead. This thinking is in error. The chotki and the rosary bear a physical resemblance, but their use is quite different.
The rosary is primarily a prayer rather than an object. As a prayer, the rosary has a definite structure with a beginning and an end. While other prayers can be said on the rosary beads, such as the Divine Mercy chaplet, these also have certain defined structures. When one prays the rosary, the expectation is that one starts at the beginning and prays through until the end. Although one may sometimes speak of praying "one decade of the rosary," technically one has prayed 10 Hail Marys, not the rosary.
The chotki, by contrast, is not a prayer but an object meant to aid in prayer. The Jesus Prayer is the most commonly used, but there is no reason why a chotki cannot be used to pray other prayers. I once had a beautiful prayer experience repeating Job 1:21 on my chotki. The idea is to pray without ceasing, and the prayer rope helps us maintain focus during prayer. One can pray with a chotki for five minutes, an hour, or throughout the day, pausing as needed.
I often use my prayer rope to remain focused during Mass. I joke with my pastor that I use it to stay awake during his homilies, but the truth is that it helps me to remain in a state of prayer which is the "active participation" in the liturgy called for by the Second Vatican Council ("Sacrosanctum Concilium," 14). The Jesus Prayer is simple enough that I can pray it silently while my attention remains on the liturgy. Its repetition fades gently into the background of my mind, replacing the "to do" list and scattered thoughts that otherwise dwell there and serve as distractions from prayer.
The chotki and the rosary are complementary, not competitive. In fact, as I have begun to regularly make use of the chotki and the Jesus Prayer, my devotion to the rosary has increased. I can only offer the suggestion that to increase in one form of prayer is to increase in prayer generally. The more one grows in prayer, the more one is filled with the desire to pray.
St. John Paul II exhorted the Church to "breathe with her two lungs" ("Ut Unum Sint," 54), by which he meant the Western and Eastern halves of the Church. Breathing with both lungs – and praying with both lungs – means being open to learning from the prayer traditions of our brothers and sisters in faith, and adopting them for our spiritual good.
Matthew Newsome serves as the campus minister for Western Carolina University. Learn more about the Campus Ministry program at more than 20 colleges and universities across the Diocese of Charlotte at www.catholiconcampus.com.